Optical character recognition is becoming more important when processing various documents having various contextually related images. For example, a bank check typically includes a legal amount stated in words and a courtesy amount having a numerical amount written in a box on the bank check. Many prior art optical character recognition techniques, such as the system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,512, issued Sep. 8, 1992, image a field by locating either characters or words and generating a numerical equivalent field such as from the legal amount of a check. This becomes a reference from which a comparison is made with the other set such as the courtesy amount, to determine the accuracy of the imaging.
It would be advantageous to extend comparison between such combinations as an image and a pen-input, the picture of a face and a signature, and perhaps even a portion of audio speech and video of lips moving. It would be desirable if the inputs from two fields such as described could be recognized simultaneously, instead of compared to each other as in previously, described techniques.